I'd Do Anything for that Freak
by Devil's Toenail
Summary: Cathy is one of the most hated people at Hogwarts and knows that no-one will ever want to snog her..... I'm pretty rubbish at summaries so please forgive me.
1. I Pity the Fool

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"Leave off will you!" Cathy said, turning to the sniggering prat behind her, who had just flicked yet another little ball of parchment into her hair.

"Invest in a hairbrush, Creepy Cathy."

Picking the piece of parchment out of her curls, Cathy put her feet up on the empty seat beside her and continued what she was doing. She was already peeved that Umbridge was late, don't get her wrong, the woman is an idiot, but with the pressure to pass her Defence N.E.W.T this wasn't the time for her to be missing lessons.

Busily making notes from her textbook with her left hand, she was finishing a potions essay with her right. The fact that she is ambidextrous is really her only talent, that and she can dislocate her big toes at will.

"Here George! Where's Fred?" Lee Jordan shouted across the classroom to George Weasley, who had typically arrived late.

"It's his turn to have the 'flu'; teachers get too suspicious if we both have it." George stated.

He walked towards where he and Fred usually sit, before remembering that during their last lesson they had hexed the desk so that it went on fire as an excuse not avoid copying more tedious paragraphs from the textbook, making it no use to anyone, there was still a black scorch-mark where the desk was and a strong smell of burnt wood. This meant that the only other empty seat was beside Creepy Cathy.

"Cree- um, Cathy, can I sit there…… please?"

Disturbed from her writing and untwisting her knickers at the same time, she looked George directly in the eye for a full five seconds before taking her feet off the chair and moving her books too make room for him. Going back to her work, George turned and made a face at Lee, he returned this by chucking some Honeydukes chocolate at him.

Stuffing most of it in his mouth, he nudged Cathy and offered her a bit.

Puffing out air in annoyance so it ruffled her fringe, she turned.

"What?"

"Just wandering if you'd like some. There is nothing in it, I swear." George put his hand over his heart in mock oath.

Searching his usually good natured eyes for signs that he was going to poison her or humiliate her in any way, Cathy found something else. Pity.

She was fuming "No thank you, you can take your bloody chocolate and your pity and shove it up your-"

"RIGHT CLASS!!!" Umbridge was back. "So sorry I am late, I was dealing with a little incident involving dung bombs in the astronomy tower, which has forced me to issue the rule that all Zonko Joke products are now banned from the school." She said with a manic smile.

This caused most of the class to submit a series of groans and "Aw but Professor….."

"Settle Down! Now turn to chapter 12 in your books and begin to copy out the first two paragraphs to ensure maximum understanding. I expect silence."

Cathy put her head down and began writing, slipping her essay into her bag.

George opened his mouth to confront her about her sudden outburst.

"Why-"

"I said silence, Mr Weasley."

He put his head down and began writing. Out of the corner of his eye he studied her, half-hoping that she had written on her face telling him what her problem was.

George noticed that she wasn't as frizzy or fat as she had been in first year. He, Fred and basically the rest of the year kept their distance from her as her reputation for rudeness and the rumours that she wasn't the full sickle, meant that most people kept away. George hadn't had a proper look at her in years. Reddish-brown hair that clashed with her blue Ravenclaw robes was piled high on her head with hundreds of pins to keep her unruly curls in place, with a few hanging around her face, her fringe made it look a bit odd. Her grey eyes were outlined with kohl, he noted that she very rarely blinked, this helped her reputation for being mad, and it was quite frightening when she stared at you. She has quite a babyish mouth pulled into an almost permanent scowl and a snub nose dotted with freckles It was difficult to tell weather she had lost any weight under her robs but it was obvious that she still enjoyed the odd chocolate frog or six.

Overall George thought that she would be much nicer-looking if she only smiled once in a while.

The second the class was over Cathy was out of the door, not giving George the chance to ask for an apology.

"Meh, if she wants to be a bitch, let her." He said to himself.

Lee looked confused, "What?"

"Nothing, it's just that Creepy Cathy, she's a bit……"

"Frightening, mental, weird, psycho, bad taste in hair styles?"

George laughed, "All that and more. She is off her trolley, I swear."

They headed off to the common room, tripping up a few first years as they went.

"We shouldn't be so harsh George, remember we were first years once, all sweet and innocent." Lee joked.

"Ha, but they're small and they get in the way, look at 'em go." George pointed to a few that were being chased my Filtch's cat.

A few moments later they were greeted by a very grumpy Fred.

"McGonagall caught me out of bed playing exploding snap, now I've got detention with her later."

"Better her than Snape."

"'Spose," Fred grumbled "Did u hear that they're banning Zonkos?"

"Yeah, saw Filtch putting up the sign in the great hall and everything." Lee sighed.

"That's not all," George chucked a roll of parchment at Fred, "Two foot essay on grindylows from Umbridge. You'll never have more fun in your life."

Fred frowned reading the instructions for the homework, "Did we not do this already in third year?"

"I told her that, but she just took off five points and didn't explain anything." George stretched out on one of the squishy armchairs in front of the fire.

"So dear brother, how did you cope without me, in my time of sickness?" Fred sat down as well, hand on forehead.

"Your desk is still missing, so lucky George got to sit with big sexy Creepy Cathy." Lee told him, going up the stairs to their dorms. "He got off with her." He joked before disappearing.

"Cor blimey George. You lucky git." Fred laughed and then he saw George's expression. "What? She didn't try to slit your throat with her quill did she?"

"Something like that. Nah, she's just nasty and a bit weird. Nothing new."

"Not half. You poor bugger."


	2. I'll get you and your little rat too!

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Staring out the window, Cathy lay in bed thinking about the conversation that she had had with George Weasley earlier that day. If you could even call it that.

At first she didn't feel anything about her telling him to go and shove his sweets where the sun doesn't shine. But then soon after she started to feel a bit rotten, she has had people dislike her, hate her, maybe even a bit frightened of her, but not pity. Why did he have to be different? Then she felt really rotten. When the class was dismissed she ran to the toilets and cried (something she had been doing quite a lot recently, she was a walking hormone factory), staying behind to apologise would be a sign of weakness and in her experience, the last thing she needed people to think is that she is weak.

Now, remembering the hurt that she saw in his face, Cathy felt like kicking herself.

Sitting up, she pulled a large shoebox from under the bed. On tipping the contents onto her bed, a sleek black rat toppled out. Cathy picked up the rat and began to stroke it.

"There's my little Timmy. Who's a good boy? You are, aren't you? You still like me don't you? You don't think me mad, of course you don't, you're a rat. Timmy doesn't care. Timmy's fine. Do you like bacon? I saved you some from breakfast."

She rushed over to her robes and pulled out a cold piece of bacon wrapped in tissue.

"There we are. You don't care what stupid George Weasley thinks. So I don't either. There we are, you eat-"

" Oh my god, Bella, she's talking to that vermin she calls a pet, AGAIN!" Finnula Moore, a plain thin girl with wavy black hair and a pinched face stood in the doorway dressed for bed.

" Telling him about your day are you Creepy. 'Oh Timmy, I'm so sad, lonesome, poor little yucky me"." Bella Hall, also in her pyjamas, sniggered. She is tall and athletic, with light brown hair and glasses.

"Bugger off." Cathy put Timmy back into his shoebox.

"If the whole school get pneumonic plague, we'll know who to blame."

"It's bubonic actually." She muttered.

Finnula frowned "What did you just call me?"

"The rat spread the bubonic plague you stupid cow." Cathy pulled the curtains around her bed and lay down.

"I say it now and I'll say it again, absolutely stark raving bonkers." She heard Bella say.

Cathy pulled the duvet over her head and with great difficulty, went to sleep.

_Cathy desperately tried to pull the top of her strapless dress over the top of her chest, the last place that she wanted to be was at this bloody Yule Ball but it was expected of the whole school to attend. Cautiously making her way into the great hall, she picked up a glass of pumpkin juice and took a seat near the back. Watching the couples twirling around the dance floor made her hope that no one had noticed that she had turned up alone ,"I'm leaving after an hour or two anyway so there was no point of bringing a date," she thought, "But it would have still been nice to have someone ask you." A little voice told her._

"_Come alone have you girl? Join the club" Professor Moody sat down heavily beside her. Cathy only smiled, she liked Moody as he was one of the few teachers who actually spoke to her like a real person and put a stop to any teasing in Defence._

"_I would understand if you want me to go away, I just want to congratulate you on your excellent essay on the effects of werewolf bites and scratches, I really think you could go far in this subject." He looked over his shoulder then leaned a bit closer, "you are far more intelligent than any of those smarmy little gits, and I'm not just saying that."_

_She was over the moon; no one had ever said anything so nice to her before._

_Moody shuddered and went to take a swig, only to find that it was empty._

"_Err…well I best be off, don't like to hang around these shin dig's for too long." Moody hurried off leaving Cathy to think about hunting vampires for a living._

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The next day, on her way to Charms, Cathy was stopped by Luna Lovegood. Luna is one of the few people that Cathy would willingly exchange words with on a regular basis.

"Hello Cathy."

"Hi"

"Can we go over here a minute?" Luna pulled her into a broom cupboard.

"I'm afraid I don't swing that way Luna." Cathy said dryly.

Luna chuckled, "A friend of mine wants to meet a few people during the next Hogsmaid visit in the Hogs Head, want to come?"

"Oh Luna you know I never go…"

"That's ok, I just thought that you might be interested, it's to do with Professor Umbridge"

"……..I'll think about it, can I go now I'm late?"

"Ok, this place is probably crawling with nargles anyway."

Cathy made a hasty exit, ran to charms and made a quick apology to Professor Flitwick.

"It's not like you to be late Miss Williams"

"I know, I was busy Professor."

"Busy talking to her rat" someone muttered and a few laughed.

"Shhhhh," Flitwick smiled at her "Very well, sit down."

She slammed her books down onto her desk and glared in the direction of who ever made the rat comment. The person beside her flinched and moved as far to the edge of their part of the desk as possible.

At lunch, Fred and George were busy selling fever fudge to a few third years trying to escape a test with Trelawney.

"If you buy three boxes we'll throw in some puking pastels, half price."

"C'mon, ten galleons, it's worth it."

A blond boy with glasses chewed his lip thoughtfully, "Alright then."

"Excellent," said George, writing down his order,"We'll have it to you by this evening."

"Nice doing business with you."

Just then there was a loud crash and a shout, and a girl they recognised as Bella came storming into the great hall.

"CATHY WILLIAMS YOU FREAK!"

The whole of the hall went quiet.

"This should be interesting." Lee Jordan muttered.

"You absolute freak." She repeated, marching to where Cathy sat.

"Care to enlighten me to why I am an absolute freak?" She said calmly, not looking up from her soup.

"Oh you don't know do you? Your bloody rat, that's why. Dear little Timmy has chewed through my good dress robes, _and_ shat all over my bed."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"I want my robes replaced, that's what I want."

"No."

"What?"

"No, my rat is not a machine;" she looked up, "I don't have any control over his actions."

Bella went purple, "Do you have any idea how much those robes cost, you bitch!" At this she punched Cathy full in the face. The whole hall gasped, someone retched and another whooped, "Cat fight! Yeah!"

"Miss Hall, what on earth is going on?" Professor Sprout had stepped in.

With her nose spouting blood, she stood up and poured her soup all over Bella.

Sprout had to restrain on to Bella to stop her from grabbing Cathy by the throat and throttling her.

"I'm going to kill you!" she shrieked, cream of chicken running down her face.

McGonagall appeared, "Miss Hall that is enough! Report to your head of house at once!"

"And they say I'm mad." Cathy smirked. Grabbing her bag, she wiped her nose on her sleeve and left the hall leaving a little trial of blood in her wake.

"Miss Williams, do you not think that you should report to the hospital wing? Miss Williams!" shouted McGonagall, "Well, do you not all have classes to go to!" indicating to the gawping students around her.

At this everyone started to leave and the normal hum of hustle and bustle returned.

"How was that for some light lunchtime entertainment?" Fred chortled to Ron, Harry and Hermione.

"Brilliant," said Ron, "I thought Cathy would have reacted more though, like turn Bella into a cow pat or something."

"Yeah, funny that." said George thoughtfully.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "Do you think she'll be ok?"

"Who cares." said Ron.

Hermione elbowed him, "Her nose could be broken Ron, someone should check on her."

"We've got Defence with her later," shrugged Fred, "we could ask her then."

"We? The last time I tried to ask her anything she bit my head off. You can." exclaimed George.

Fred laughed, "Fine, I don't know why you're so scared of her dear brother, we've dealt with worse."

Holding her hair off her face, Cathy immersed herself in the basin of cold water. It felt good on her poor throbbing nose, coming back up for air she stared at herself in the mirror. Her cheek was starting to bruise, and the bleeding wasn't stopping, but it cleared her head. Going back under water she felt an icy cold presence at her side.

"I hope your not trying to drown yourself, because you're not allowed to share my toilet." it said.

Realising who it was she replied, "Go away Myrtle."

"You look _awful_, watch you don't die from blood loss." Moaning Myrtle said ignoring her.

"Doubt anyone would care" Cathy thought as she left the girls toilets. Deciding that she would skip Astronomy, she ambled slowly in the direction of Defence stopping every so often at a window to wipe her nose on the endless amount on bog roll she had stolen from the toilets. Cathy wasn't about to try and fix it herself, healing magic wasn't exactly her forte. Thinking about the whole situation Cathy started to find the situation quite funny. Bella covered in all that soup, she looked like a swamp beast!

She started to laugh like a maniac, not caring if anyone heard.

Soon the corridors were filling with students going to their last class of the day, and taking his as her cue to go to Umbridge's torture chamber, turned away from the window and started on her way.

Not looking where she was going and still laughing to herself, she walked into one of they many people she least wanted to see.

George didn't know what to say, she had splattered blood down the front of his shirt. Complaining to her about it would probably set her off again, but not saying anything was just stupid. Panicking, he opened his mouth to speak, but to his surprise she got there first.

"Oh, um… I'm sorry." She stuttered, looking up at him. Her face was a watery, make-up streaked, bloody mess.

"It's ok." George said cautiously, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, why shouldn't I be?"

"You've got blood on your face."

"Oh shit." She pulled out an armful of tissues and began dabbing at her face, "It won't stop."

"Here." And with a quick flick of his wand the bleeding ceased.

Smiling gratefully, she went to say thanks. "You really didn't-"

"George! Lee has found goblin porn!!!! You have to see this!" Fred came bounding towards them. "What are you doing?"

"I was just talking to-"George turned to and empty space where Cathy had been standing seconds earlier.

Fred raised his eyebrows.

"Creepy Cathy."

"Ah, so she isn't dying or anything."

"No, did you say goblin porn?"

"Yeah Lee found it near the kitchens, he's going to show us later."

"Kinky." George grinned

"By the way, mate, you've got red on you."


	3. Thats the way uh huh uh huh i like it

The next weekend Cathy made her way down to Hogsmade for the first time in months. It was curiosity more than anything that made her go. Cathy may have been an outcast but she shared a deep and meaningful hate for Umbridge just like the rest of the school.

Somewhere off the beaten track, she found the Hogs Head, (it smelt a bit like mothballs).

Deciding not to order anything, sat down near three Hogwarts students who she assumed were there for the same reason she was. Among them was Harry Potter, the clever Granger girl and Ron Weasley.

"We're still waiting for a few people," Granger informed her," so if you want to get a drink or anything…"

"I'm fine."

Letting her mind drift she found that she was thinking about how much of a fool she looked when she rubbed her face all over George Weasleys shirt. Soaking, bloody nose, make up smeared all over her face and laughing away like a hyena, nice. Then Cathy started to question why she was worrying about what he thought of her. She had never cared about other peoples opinions before, why now?

A few minutes later Luna, the Patil twins, a lot of Gryffindors, a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, Ginny Weasley, Lee Jordan and the person she wanted to see least arrived in. Fred and George waved at Harry and sat down at the other side of the room. Cathy had been avoiding both of them since her encounter the previous week. George especially as she was sure that blood doesn't come out. Her way of telling them apart was that Fred has a small scar on his left eyebrow, whereas George doesn't. She was surprised that the teachers hadn't worked this out, as they were always switching places to confuse the professors.

She tried to avoid looking in their direction, but it was very difficult as the sun shining through the window was hitting is red hair in a way that made it shimmer so it was sort of hypnotising like-

" Well, er…hi." Grangers voice interrupted her thoughts. "Well…erm…well, you know why you're here. Erm…well, Harry here had the idea – I mean, I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts – and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us – because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts…"

"Hear, hear." Someone shouted.

"Well I thought that it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

A lot of stuff about Harry and his adventure kicked off, then someone mentioned Cedric Diggory and she thought that she was going to vomit over Susan Bones. This was stopped when Harry blew a fuse. THEN they all started on about how amazing he was and listed all the shit he had done over that past year, it was amazing, but it gave Cathy the feeling that anyone could really do it if they put their minds to it. One boy wouldn't let things drop though,

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" he inquired

Ron went pink, "Here's an idea, why don't you shut your mouth?"

The boy paused before opening his gob again, "Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it."

"That's not what he said," Fred snapped.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" George pulled out a long metal spike from a bag he was holding; Cathy stifled a snort of laughter.

They finally came to the conclusion that if you wanted to join this club thing then you'd sign this parchment.

Although she didn't entirely agree with what was going to happen, Cathy signed. Scribbling her signature onto the piece of parchment, she gave Potter a quick nod and after stepping on a few people's toes and walking into a hag that was entering the pub, she was able to leave.

The whole time Potter and his friends had been talking, Cathy made a decision. This decision would return things between her and George Weasley back to normal, she could go back to scuttling around everyone like a cockroach, if no one bothered her she didn't bothered them, that's the way she liked it.

_After twelve glasses of pumpkin juice, Cathy decided to go to bed, Making her way up the stairs and along the corridors to Ravenclaw tower she paused outside Moody's classroom, maybe she should stop in to say goodnight and maybe mention her plans of becoming a vampire hunter in Russia. Going into the classroom she noticed that the light in his office was still on and walking quietly she could hear voices, neither of them recognisable as Moody's._

_Peeking through the door into the room, a young man in Moody's clothing with thick, dark hair and white, shallow skin stood talking to the fat face of a man in the fire._

"_You do understand the Dark Lord grows impatient." the face said_

_The man started to pace, "I'm doing the best I can with what I've got, it isn't easy you know; the tournament's security is tight."_

"_He does not think that you are making much progress, maybe you aren't up to the task at all."_

"_Are you questioning the Dark Lord's actions Wormtail?"_

_Suddenly the fat man looked nervous, "No! No, I'm just….. Look Barty, as long as you get to Potter-"_

"_I know, just tell him I'm making progress for the final task and-"the man stared wildly around the room, "hear that?"_

"_What?"_

"_Breathing, someone is listening."_

_Cathy put her hand over her mouth and took a step backwards._

_The door swung open and the man pulled her inside "Hello, girlie." He said pressing his wand to her throat._

On Monday at breakfast, she approached the Gryffindor table, the twins where messing around flicking porridge at each other.

Ignoring the looks she was getting, Cathy coughed to get George's attention. They both stopped, George looked nervous and Fred smirked slightly.

"Hello." She greeted them

"Err…hi" they said together

There was a long pause.

"Can I help you?" asked George

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok, the blood came out after a few washes."

"No, I'm apologising for being so rude to you when you offered me the chocolate, I didn't mean to, it's just that I'm not used to it, the offer not the chocolate, I eat that all the time, but anyway, I thought it was out of charity, though it probably wasn't, and we've all heard the rumours that I'm a bit mad so maybe-"

George put his hand up to stop her. "Seriously, it's ok."

"Really?" she looked shocked.

"Yeah"

Another pause followed.

"How's the nose?"

"Still a bit sore"

Fred studied her face, "Where did you get the split lip from?"

"I fell down the stairs this morning."

"Would you like some porridge?" George asked, offering her a half filled bowl, with what looked suspiciously looked like a ginger hair floating in it.

"I'm fine thank you. I better go"

Turning away and feeling slightly better that she had fixed everything, Cathy started towards Potions.

"'Ere Cathy!" came a shout from the table she had just left, it was Fred, "Want to sit with us on the train home at Christmas?" She saw George kick Fred under the table.

She just stared at him.

"Excellent. See you then."

Not wanting to hang around a moment longer, she ran off. "Crap" she thought, "I had just fixed everything and now he has to go and unfix it."

It was also obvious that George wanted noting to do with her, like she with him, she had not declined the invitation, she had just stood there looking gormless.

But Christmas is a long way off so maybe he'll forget, she hoped whilst chopping up some crows feet, getting so distracted she started to chop her knuckle too."

"Miss Williams, do you intend to continue chopping until you reach your elbow or are you going to complete this minimising potion properly." Snape said loudly so the whole class heard.

"Sorry Professor."

"Other teachers have been saying that you have become uncharacteristically absent minded, are you ill?" he asked with mock concern.

"No Professor."

"Then I suggest you get on with it!"

"C'mon mate, you could cut the sexual tension with a knife!" Fred laughed later in the common room

"What sexual tension?" George bristled, "it's no secret that she likes her own company, what made you think that she'd want to sit with us?"

"I didn't see her say no."

"I didn't see her say yes." George flicked a Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Bean at him. "You can really be a git at times, y'know that?"

Fred took a bow,"Thank you, Thank you."

Later George lay in bed thinking, he was 95 per cent sure that he wanted to stay away from Creepy Cathy, the girl was demented! But the other 5 per cent was curious and wanted to find out more about her, and the train journey would be a perfect opportunity. Getting up to take a piss, he decided that it was nothing worth worrying about, she'd probably find a compartment to herself and keep away until she got to King's Cross.

Her little ramble at breakfast had been quite funny and part of it was true, although he had not meant his offer of chocolate to be an act of charity, he did pity her that day in Charms when she arrived in late and someone tripped her up sending her books flying and her face slamming into a desk. It was a wonder that her face wasn't all disfigured and fucked up with the amount of abuse it takes, partly to her own clumsiness and partly to people picking on her. She also looked pathetic when she was trying to apologise for her behaviour, the big yellowing bruise on her cheek had made her eye partly close over. George had forgotten why everyone either avoided her or picked on her so.

He was to be reminded that Friday.


	4. Friday, I'm in a fight

_If anyone wants to draw Cathy or anything like that, it'd be great because my drawings look like a hoover run amok with a paint brush. __ Chapter's a bit short, but I'll make it up to you with a massive chapter next time._

She felt sick. Sick and dizzy. They were bitching about her and she knew it. Sitting at the edge of the lake was meant to be Cathy's way of relaxing and getting a bit of studying done, but when Bella, Finnula and another of their cronies called Kerry arrived, the relaxation stopped and she began to feel self conscious and paranoid.

Whispering then looking at her, whispering then looking. She thought heard the words "Diggory" and "she knew" they were plotting. Cathy's paranoid mind couldn't handle it and she felt like she was going to pass out.

Next thing she knew she had jumped on Bella's back and she was being thrown around like she was on a bucking bronco. Kerry had grabbed her by the hair and was trying to pull her off but Cathy tightened her grip on Bella, she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to achieve from this at all.

Kerry pulled a bottle of ink out of her bag and chucked it over Cathy and Bella.

"What the fuck do you think your doing?" Bella screamed at her.

All of the shouting had attracted an audience "Fight, Fight, Fight!" they were jeering and nearly all of them were rooting for Bella.

Finnula pulled out her wand, "Wingardium Leviosa!", Cathy was pulled off Bella and hovered in the air for a few seconds before landing on the ground with a thud. This prompted her to pull out her own wand and start throwing random spells at the three of them. Leaves started to sprout from Kerry's ears and Finnula was paralysed from the neck down but Bella was still standing.

Teachers had arrived and were pulling the girls away from each other, Professor Sprout had Bella but Snape didn't have a proper grip on Cathy so she leapt from his arms and sunk her teeth into the other girl's ankle. Bella howled in pain and Snape grabbed the scruff of Cathy's robes and yanked her up.

"Go back to class, ALL OF YOU!" he yelled at the spectators who were disappointed that the fight was over.

"And you," he shook Cathy, "to the headmasters office. Bring the other girl too." He said over his shoulder to Sprout.

The crowd parted to let them through, people's expressions varied from disgust to sheer glee, Cathy found herself smirking slightly at them.

"Wipe that smile off your face." snarled Snape.

"I must say that this is very surprising behaviour from the both of you." Professor Dumbledore shook his head, "I will not tolerate fighting of any kind in my school. But I have dealt with worse. Would Miss Williams begin telling us how the fight started?"

Cathy, who had been staring at the ground jumped slightly, "Well I….I um..."

"Sir, she just attacked me out of no where, I was minding my own business when she jumped on my back." Bella informed him.

Dumbledore nodded, "I see. Miss Williams?"

She wiped some of the ink away that had been running into her eyes but said nothing.

"There has to be some reason to why you did what you did." Commented a worried looking Professor Flitwick.

"She is insane; she needs to go to St Mungos."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at Bella, "Thank you Miss Hall, you may go to see Madame Pomfrey about your foot now"

They waited until she was out of the room before turning their attention back to Cathy.

"Well as you can give us no explanation to your actions, I shall leave it up to Professor Flitwick to administer a punishment."

Flitwick sighed, "You will have detention every night for a week and I shall be writing to your parents."

Seemed fair enough, "Who will I be having the detention with sir?"

"Professor Umbridge is insisting that all detentions be put to her, so she will be informed and you will be sent a time to go later tonight." He didn't look too pleased about that bit

"Is there anything you want to tell us Miss Williams, anything worrying you?" asked Dumbledore.

"No sir."

He didn't look like he believed her

"Then you may go also."

Cathy left feeling a bit ill, maybe it was all of that ink that ran into her mouth or maybe it was that she knew what Umbridge's detentions involved. She looked at the back of her left hand, rubbing it she thought about why she had gone mental and attacked Bella, and found that she couldn't recall.

"She called me a fat bitch," she eventually convinced herself, "She must have done something to provoke me, that was it".

Looking in the mirror of the girl's bathroom, Cathy realised that this was the first time in a while that she had escaped a fight uninjured, despite being covered in black ink and that was becoming a common sight nowadays, walking around the school covered in something weather it was ink, blood, paint or milk.


	5. Who here would eat a spider?

Who here would eat a spider?

It was the first DA meeting and the Weasley twins were very excited.

"Not only will we be breaking the rules but it'll be a communal effort." George had said.

Everyone picked up the first spell quickly enough, and the group were surprised at how good Harry was at teaching. The only people who were still pretty rubbish at the disarming spell was Neville and Cathy. Neville bowed his head and apologised each time he got it wrong, annoying everyone including Harry. Cathy however was becoming more irritable and frustrated by the minute and George could see that she was trying very hard not to cry.

"Expell- Ex-"

"It's ok, you just need to make more of a flick than a jab with your wand" Harry told her.

"I'm crap, Defence Against the Dark Arts is meant to be my best subject and I can't even do a basic disarming spell." She said, nearly breaking her wand in two.

Harry knew that she was prone to aggressive outbursts, tried not to make her temper any worse by telling her, "You're just out of practise, Umbridge hasn't let you use your wand all year."

All of the DA had seen her most recent fight, and were quite jittery about being in an enclosed space with her for prolonged periods of time; the only person who would be her partner was Luna.

"I'm sure you'll pick it up soon." She tried to reassure her.

"My concentration isn't helped as everyone keeps staring at me." Cathy saw Nigel peek at her "What are you gawking at?" she growled at him

"Don't be mean, just ignore them." Luna shook her head

The only person she couldn't ignore was George Weasley, at first she had found the way he frowned slightly when he concentrated a bit irritating but the more she looked at him it gradually became more bearable and maybe even attractive. At one point he glanced up at her, but it wasn't a romantic "their eyes met across the room and from that moment they knew it was meant to be so they nicked off the back and had a quickie". It was a look that said "keep away from me and my family."

George was sure that Cathy was watching him; it was making him very uncomfortable. Was he her next victim? Her scrap with the Bella girl had proven to him that she was a vicious animal who liked to attack at random. Now he only had a 3 per cent interest on sitting next to her on the train. He deliberately made eye contact with her for a few seconds just to let her know that he knew what she was doing but it didn't seem to faze her.

She sat at the side of the room with her unnervingly cold grey eyes fixed in steady observation. Someone had once joked that they would buy Cathy sunglasses for her birthday, but no one knew when her birthday was so it didn't matter.

"Rendezvous in the great hall, stolen glances across the room, you'll be taking her to the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer next." Fred swooned, making kissy noises

"You need your head looking at" George rolled his eyes, since Fred was the first one to get a girlfriend he was set on matchmaking his brother with any girl who gave him the slightest bit of attention.

Fred raised an eyebrow "Can you think of any other reason to why she is staring at you?"

"She wants to fight me. It wouldn't have been the first time she's had a scrap with a bloke, remember Patrick Greengrass?"

Both shuddered "They never did find his earlobe. You haven't done anything to provoke her."

"Have I Fred? Have I?"

Harry waved to get everyone's attention, "Ok everybody, you all did brilliantly, and erm…. Just keep practising and I'll see you next week."

There was a chorus of "Bye" and "Thanks Harry" and small groups of students started to leave.

"It's not that bad," Fred lowered his tone as she was close by, "she isn't hideously ugly, already fully trained in combat, _and_ it doesn't seem to be that you're getting any so you might as well-"

"Stop talking." George nearly shouted so every person in the group turned and went "shhhhhhhhh!" as they were all trying to get back to their common rooms undetected.

They were all making their way down the staircase with the trick step and Cathy was trying to be extra careful not to trip as her shoelaces were undone and they were walking in a clump.

Close behind her there was a shout of "Stop talking!" and she turned to tell _them_ to stop talking, when suddenly she lost her footing and was falling, falling her way down to a broken nose and sprained wrist, she would have hit the bottom of the staircase if it wasn't for the unexpected strong grip on her arm. She turned to find George Weasley clutching her elbow, his eyes as big a dinner plates as though he was just as surprised at his actions as Cathy was.

Giving her three seconds to find her balance, he dropped her arm as if it were red hot.

"Are you ok?" Luna whispered.

A lot of people had held their breaths, half hoping to be the witnesses to a freak accident.

"Well then, off you fuck!" Cathy said loudly, they all scuttled off leaving Luna, the twins and Cathy. They must have stood in silence for about a minute before Fred spoke up, "Aren't you going to say thank you?"

"I was about to, you don't demand gratitude it's just plain rude." She glowered

"And you'd know all about that, little sod" Fred mumbled.

"Thank you." She grunted from under her hair.

"That's not a proper apology!" he started but George intervened

"Oh leave her alone. She didn't ask me to help her" he smiled slightly at her.

Cathy smiled back, "Thank you" she repeated and made her way down the staircase leaving Luna, who was having a conversation with one of the paintings.

"Who here would eat a spider? I would" she asked the Les Amants.

"_How much of that did you hear?" the man had pushed her against the office wall._

"_N-n-not much" His sleeve had slid up his arm, revealing the dark mark._

_He didn't believe her," Have you worked out who I am yet?"_

_Cathy nodded, "You're impersonating Professor Moody, you want to sabotage the tournament."_

_The man chuckled and flicked his tongue out and in of his mouth reminding her of a frog catching flies, "I'll say it now and I'll say it again, you're a clever girl Williams. Now because I like you I'm going to let you live, but if you utter a word of what you heard to anyone, I'm going to find you and I'm going to kill you."_

_He clearly doesn't like to beat around the bush. "Ok"_

_Roughly stroking her cheek, he let her go and not wanting to spend a second longer in his presence; Cathy sped from the classroom and straight into bed fully clothed. _

_She pulled the blankets over her head and willed herself to go to sleep not wanting to think about what she had just witnessed._

Cathy wasn't sure whether she was still dreaming or if she was awake. The duvet

wrapped around her head was becoming stuffy so she came up for air and saw that the

room was empty. She took a few minutes to think about the dream, it had been a

while since she had thought about her secret, she was still trying to forget.

Remembering that it was a Sunday, she slowly got washed and dressed whilst

thinking about what to do that day. She winced when she pulled on her t-shirt, looking

down there was a bruise on her elbow where George had grabbed her the

previous night. She touched it, imagining his warm hand wrapped around her arm,

and then shook her head.

"I'm not attracted to George Weasley, he is just another plonker in my year."

_A plonker that saved your life._

"Quiet, I don't need your input" she muttered.

Staring at herself in the mirror, Cathy pulled the loose t-shirt she was wearing tight at

the back.

"Nuh nuh nuh, Cleavage!" she sang to herself, she had never been that bothered about

her appearance but she thought that she might wear a bit more make-up to the next

DA meeting.

Cathy turned and stared at the letter from her parents she had received the night before. She had left it on her nightstand, feeling lucky that it wasn't a howler. Deciding that she might as well face the music, she ripped it open and began to read;

_Catherine,_

_Your father and I received a letter from your head of house describing your behaviour towards another pupil, and we must say that we are very disappointed. We agreed at the end of the summer no more fighting and, you were doing so well until now. As long as your school work isn't being affected by it then we have less reason to be cross._

"Of course you don't" she thought

_We are looking forward to seeing you at Christmas and you're very welcome to bring any of your little friends. Your father has just bought me new dress robes and you a matching pair which should look lovely on Christmas day._

"I'm pissing myself with joy!"

_Say hello to Harry Potter for us._

"No."

_Mummy. _

She rolled her eyes and chucked the letter in the bin.

Taking Timmy's shoebox from her wardrobe, she carefully lifted the rat out and

placed him on her shoulder. It was a weekly ritual that Timmy would sit on her

shoulder as she walked around the castle, it was nice to have that bit of company that

never asked irritating questions, answered back or disagreed.

Cathy thought back to when Ron Weasley first arrived at Hogwarts with his mouldy

old Scabbers. Timmy took a shine to him which confirmed her belief that he was gay.

Scabbers had never seemed that keen, probably because he was ready to drop dead

within the next few years.

_Maybe you should go and thank him properly, he did save you a chewed up face._

"Are you still on about that? He said it was ok."

_Fine, I'm just suggesting….._

"OK THEN!" she shouted, "Anything to shut you up."

_Good girl_.


	6. Awkward hug

"How many Skiving Snackboxes do you think we could shift before Monday?" George asked his brother.

Ever since then ban on all Weasley products had been put in place, the twins had been busily trying to hide or sell all of their stock.

"Hopefully all of them, I heard that Umbridge'll be searching rooms soon."

"Bugger."

They were so engrossed in their conversation they didn't notice Cathy walking towards them, her rat sitting on her shoulder.

"Watch where you're going" she snapped at Fred who walked into her, before he could retaliate she turned to George.

"Can I speak to you…in private please?" She asked, eyeing Fred, who only smirked at his brother.

"Erm…sure" he gave Fred a confused glance before following Cathy up to the Astronomy tower.

He lingered in the doorway of the classroom prior to joining her at the window.

"I would like to thank you properly for saving me what would have been a very sore face last night." Rubbing the scars on the back of her hands, she had alternated them on her detentions with Umbridge

"Nah, its ok, being valiant is all part of my charm." He joked and to his surprise she giggled slightly.

"I don't want to walk around with the feeling that I owe you, and I need you to know that I don't do this often." She placed Tim on the window sill.

"Do what-"

Cathy interrupted him by wrapping her arms around him in an awkward hug and then pecking him on the cheek.

"After that I'm hoping that you won't feel as uneasy around me because I don't exactly relish the feeling of being hated."

"I never hated you; I just never liked you much." George shocked himself with his honesty.

"Same difference. I never liked you much either, I just accepted you. But I could call you an acquaintance now."

"How could I ever thank you?" he replied sarcastically, but he meant it in a nice way.

She was right; she didn't seem as scary now they had shared the most uncomfortable hug of the century.

"Me and Fred are going to the lake, do you want to come?" he felt that he should ask her.

"No thank you, I don't think your brother would be too happy if I tagged along, anyway Tim and I are going to the library."

"Didn't think they let animals into the library."

Cathy shrugged, "They don't, Bye" Her rat scurried up her arm and onto the top of her head and left George to his thoughts.

"Well, what did she want?" Fred inquired when they met down at the Black Lake.

"Oh, um she just wanted to thank me properly for yesterday." He explained.

Fred looked gleeful, "Did she snog you or something, because I'm convinced that she has a thing for you."

George was pissed off, "No she did not!!! She just said thanks." He decided not to mention the hug.

"You could have tried to shift some merchandise onto her at least. Ok, if you had to, whose armpit would you lick, Umbridge or a swamp troll?"

"Swamp troll definitely!"

Cathy had always found the library to be the most fascinating place in the school. She knew that with knowledge, came a lot of things, including power and good exam marks. Spending her Sunday mornings with Timmy, browsing the shelves was her idea of bliss.

She had a funny feeling in her stomach after talking to George and her lips were still tingling after pecking him on the cheek. Still in a slight daze, she turned past one of the book shelves and walked straight into Madison Parsons, who was midway though a canoodling session with her weed for a boyfriend Joe, (No one knew his second name, he was just Joe.) He was only going out with her because he was scared of her. Madison took an instant dislike to Cathy when she sneezed over her new robes in first year; Cathy then became one of the chosen ones that got slapped around on a regular basis.

"What do you think your doing Williams?"

"Walking around the library."

Madison stepped forward, "No, what you're doing is interrupting me and Joe's quality time."

"….Sorry?"

"You will be in a minute." She took another step pushing Cathy to the floor. Timmy knew that this wasn't going to end well and legged it into a crack in the wall. Cathy went to howl in protest but it was muffled by Madison's boot.

Joe had engrossed himself in a book called, "Talking Lama's and Where to Find Them."

"Why did you do that?" she tried to say, but it came out as a, "'Hy hu ho at?"

"Because I'm sick of you and your stupid rat, always getting in my way, if you ever bother me again, you'll be looking at a broken arm."

She nodded; it was obviously high tide for someone.

Madison raised her boot off Cathy's face and smirked, "Lick"

"What?"

She gritted her teeth, "Lick. It."

"No. I shan't"

"You will do as you're told if you ever want to get up again, you see, that's your problem, and you never know when to be obedient, rebelling, fighting back. Your life would be so much easier if you just did as you were asked."

Cathy thought about it for 3 more seconds be fore sticking out her tongue and licking the gravely roughness of the straight-talking bully's shoe.

Without another word Madison and her squeeze were gone.

She scrambled up onto her knees and crawled over to the wall that Timmy had disappeared into just minutes earlier. There was no chance of him coming back, he could be anywhere in the school. She started to cry, her only proper friend, gone. As she left the library, she decided to put up a notice in the common room, "Not that anyone will care," she said to herself, and rubbed the snot off her face with the back of her hand. Yum.

_Even Cathy couldn't deny that she was very excited about the third task. Sitting beside Luna in the stands they both cheered the Hogwarts champions and Luna placed a bet with the Weasley twins that Diggory would win. As Dumbledore was talking, Moody hobbled out of the maze, as if he knew that she was watching him, he looked up into the stands directly at Cathy. _

_Over the past months she had stayed out of his way entirely and had never dared to even think about telling someone, You-Know-Who's followers were powerful and evil wizards and capable of wiping out entire families._

_The canon went off and the first two champions were away, followed closely by Krum and Fleur._

_After about twenty minutes, red sparks shot out of the maze and more people started to place bets on who it was. Cathy thought that it was probably Fleur and she was right, moments later a very distressed Fleur Delacour was pulled from the task._

_Another ten minutes and Krum appeared looking more disorientated than usual, rumours started flying around that all wasn't well in the maze and the Krum, under the imperious curse, had attacked Fleur._

"_Do you think that Harry and Cedric are ok?" Luna asked her_

_Cathy shrugged, "Dunno, but this is making to be more interesting than I thought."_

_Another hour had passed when she was woken from her nap by someone screaming._

_Jumping up she grabbed Luna,"What's happened? Who won?"_

"_I think Harry won, but it looks like Cedric is hurt and-"_

"_CEDRIC'S DEAD!!!"_

_The whole crowd surged forward, leaving Cathy standing there, she could hear her heartbeat in her ears and her mouth had gone dry. She heard the word "Voldemort"_

_Panic followed the shock, and people started to cry and shout, someone threw up. Cedric Diggory was dead, You-Know-Who had killed him._

_Nobody knew what Cathy Williams thought._

_And nobody cared._

Cathy shuddered as she remembered. She hadn't thought about that day for ages. Her mind had drifted off at lunch and led her to the massive wooden crate where she kept all the skeletons. It was her fault that he died. If she had told someone, Crouch would have been stopped, and Cedric wouldn't be dead.

She pushed the untouched plate of spaghetti away from herself and marched to Ravenclaw tower to see if her rat had returned.

George hadn't spoken to Cathy since then, but he had heard all about her rat going missing, the whole year had. She drifted around, looking angrier than ever. No-one had bothered looking for it, and when he suggested maybe helping her to Fred,

"In no way I'm helping you find your _girlfriends_ rat, go look for it yourself if you want to get into her pants so much."

He had to do a lot to prevent himself from pushing his brother off the top of the astronomy tower.


	7. all i do is pat her head like a puppy

_Sorry its taken me so bloody long to update, Christmas, exams etc., blame them!_

"Oi! You lot!" Lee Jordan came bounding towards the Gryffindor table at breakfast. "What?" Fred asked, annoyed that his discussion about his plans for the holidays had been interrupted. The Christmas break was just over a fortnight away and spirits were running high.

"Katie told me that Melinda Bobbin told her that Duncan Inglebee told her that a massive prank in going to happen tonight in the entrance hall at about half past seven."

George frowned, "Who organised this "massive prank"?"

"Someone has organised a prank and it's not us." Fred stated.

"Should be interesting though innit?" Angela Johnson shrugged.

"Might as well go and see…." Lee sat down and began stuffing toast onto his mouth.

"Alright," Fred muttered as he tried to finish a Charms essay under the table before classes started.

"Mmmm, ok." George was watching Cathy intently who had just spilled her orange juice over herself and the table and was desperately trying to wipe it off her books. She looked up, caught his eye and giving a slightly self – conscious wave, she went back to what she was doing. He smirked slightly and thought about how unusually funny she was.

* * *

Finnulla and Bella had been taking turns on keeping a lookout for Cathy. This had been going on for about half an hour before she returned to the dorms.

"Hi." Finnulla chirped at her from her bed. Bella was pretending to read a magazine.

Cathy eyed them both suspiciously but didn't reply and walked to her trunk.

"What ya doing?" Bella asked

"I'm going to have a shower; I always have a shower at this time." Cathy frowned at her, her arms full of shampoo and soap.

"Enjoy." Bella smirked as Cathy left to go to the bathrooms.

Cathy shrugged off their strange behaviour as she washed her hair and rubbed the orange juice out of the ends. She began to wander if George Weasley would like her more with straight hair. Staring down at her body she thought that she should maybe lose some more weight. Her parents had told her that she was lovely the way she was but she knew that they were just saying that because that's the sort of thing they have to say.

Cathy turned off the shower and went back into her dorm with the towel wrapped around her. Seeing that the other girls had gone she dried herself and put on pants. She tried to dry the ends of her hair but gave up because her hair was too long and thick.

She was startled suddenly when Bella and Finnulla burst into the room. Throwing the towel around her half damp body, she cried, "What the hell do you want?"

"Your rat! Timmy, we found him in the entrance hall" Bella had no longer finished this sentence when Cathy sprinted past her and through the empty common room, heading for the entrance hall. They had found her rat! She was delighted and with a small smile on her face, she sped through the school. The uncharacteristically deserted corridors never struck her as odd.

Everyone had been standing at the main staircase for around 10 minutes; the majority of the school had turned up. The news had spread quickly, assumed George. Everyone was trying to guess what was going to happen and Fred was talking about how they would top it.

"I mean if it _is_ a success at all, we'll have to try and do something even better, we don't even know whose prank it is."

Someone yelled "Look!" and the crowd fell silent.

"Bloody hell!" said Fred.

George stared at Cathy. She stood at the top of the stairs, soaking wet. Her waist length hair created small puddles at her feet, as she tried helplessly to cover her front with a towel. The expression of shock on her face stunned everyone for a few seconds before a titter broke out which erupted into full blown laughter. George didn't know weather to join in or not, he didn't really find it funny.

"This is a pretty sick joke," Fred whispered, but he had a smirk that showed part of him found it amusing.

Cathy began to feel dizzy, they were all laughing at her. She wanted to cry but her face had gone numb. She stood, stunned for a good minute, before taking off, the towel flapping around her.

_How dare those bitches do that? You'll make them suffer, won't you?_

"Yes" she sobbed, "They'll pay"

She stumbled her way along the corridors, occasionally taking a wrong turn, before getting back to Ravenclaw Tower.

"Riddle me this, What is the beginning of the end, the end of time, the middle of yesterday, and nowhere in tomorrow?" the portrait asked.

Cathy screwed up her face, "I don't know, just let me in!"

"What is the beginning of the end, the end of time, the middle of yesterday, and nowhere in tomorrow?" it insisted, eyeing her up and down.

"I don't bloody know!"

After the jeering crowd had disbanded from the hall, George muttered some excuse about needing the loo and sprinted up the stairs towards Ravenclaw tower. He wasn't really sure why he wanted to make sure that she was alright, but he knew that no one else would bother to check on her.

Making his way up the tower, he could hear a small argument going on at the top.

"I cannot let you in unless you answer."

"Can you not give me a different riddle? Please!"

"No. That would be giving you an unfair advantage."

"To what exactly? It's not a competition ."

It was Cathy arguing with the painting. She sounded vicious, and George was beginning to doubt his plan. As he decided to turn quietly around, Cathy spotted him,

"Coming to laugh at Creepy Cathy some more have we?" she tried to sound indignant, but her voice cracked half way.

"I never laughed at you." he said calmly

"Well," she tried to cover her chest more with the towel, "What do you want then?"

"To see if you were ok"

"Like you care. I'm obviously doing just fine. If you'd excuse me…" she pushed past him to go downstairs.

George followed her, "Hold on! I'm trying to be nice. Remember our mutual friendship?"

She turned to look at him, "What?"

He rolled his eyes, "Look-"

Footsteps coming up the stairs had interrupted him.

"Shit!" Cathy panicked, wide eyed.

George noticed and empty classroom and motioned for her to follow him. Once inside she pressed her ear against the door and listened to the footsteps die away. Exhaling slowly she mumbled, "…..Thanks. That would have been terribly embarrassing. Not that I'm not already embarrassed because you can see my knickers along with the rest of the school because these girls in my dorm….they…you see…"

The rest turned into blubbing as Cathy sat down onto the floor and began to cry under her hair.

Unsure what to do, George carefully sat down beside her and patted her head awkwardly. She sniffed and looked up at him, before crying harder, and, to his shock, crawling onto his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.

Cathy continued to cry into his chest, as George wrapped the towel around her properly, (he was on the verge of seeing her boobs), and tried to be comforting.

"A half naked girl wrapped around me, and all I do is pat her head like a puppy. There is something wrong with me." He thought.

_PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!! I need to know what u think! Feedback! Give me some ideas! Draw pictures! ANYTHING!!!!_


	8. Meet the Parents

_Thanks for all the great reviews, keep them coming! The answer to the riddle was the letter "E" for anyone who didn't get it! _

Cathy slung her bag over her shoulder and smoothed her robes, ready to face the day in an almost cheesy musical fashion.

It had been over a week since, "The Bad Thing", as she had named it. The school seemed to have forgotten, as Madison got caught attempting to have sex with Joe in a broom cupboard, so everyone was talking about that now.

After what didn't seem like long enough crying into George's shoulder, he lent her his jumper and told her the answer to the riddle. Although she didn't say it, she was very grateful, and discovered that she had what were the makings of a crush on the red –head.

She hadn't really seen him much since then. The odd grin in the great hall and the loan of some parchment had been about it.

Everyone was very excited as it was the last day before the Christmas holidays. Cathy had arranged to go home as always, and was actually beginning to look forward to sitting beside George on the train home, if he remembered that was.

She arrived at Charms early, in the hope to secure a seat closer to the twins. They hadn't been in class for the last few days, or anywhere for that matter, but she just assumed that they were skiving off and sneaking out of the castle.

Cathy looked up hopefully every time someone entered the classroom, but by the time the lesson has started, they hadn't appeared.

" 'Ere, Lee. Lee." she prodded Lee Jordan in the back with her wand.

He turned his head looking irritated, "What?"

"I was just wandering," She fiddled with her quill, trying to seem casual, "Where's Fred and George been the last few days?"

"Did you not hear? Their dad was attacked on some ministry work. It's all very hush-hush, but he's really hurt. They've all gone home early."

"Oh" was all she could say. As the lesson began, a sudden selfish thought washed over her, "Who will I sit beside on the train?"

Cathy woke up with a sudden jolt to find that that they had arrived at Kings Cross. She looked around the empty booth she had secured that morning. No – one had dared ask to sit with her, so she read for a bit then fell asleep.

Grabbing her trunk, she made her way off the train and began scanning the platform for her parents. She couldn't spot them anywhere and was about to try the other side of the platform when she heard it, "Catherine! Catherine darling!" came a screeching cry from not far behind her.

She turned, "Mother, Father, what a delight!" she put on a fake smile copying her mothers finishing school accent.

"Catherine!" her mother shouted again, her dad following and looking a bit embarrassed.

"I'm right here. There's no need to shout." Cathy said flatly

"Less of the lip." Her dad's rough Scottish accent, in contrast to her mum's, warned.

Her mum wrapped her arms around the cringing teen, tickling her face with her fur coat, "How are you? Was the train journey satisfactory? Did you get a little sleep? Have people been nice?"

She shrugged, "Yeah, s'pose."

Her mum stroked her face, "Good. I've got a lovely dinner on for you at home. Samuel, bring her trunk to the car darling."

She patted her platinum blonde bob and wandered through the barrier.

Cathy's dad went second, with his daughter following close behind.

"So," he started, once through, "how are thing's really Monkey Socks?"

She scowled at his pet name that referred to her toe talent. "Shhhh. I'm fine really. Nothing _that _interesting has happened, apart from the fact that Timmy has gone."

"Your rat! Aw Cathy, I'm very sorry but we can't do very much about that. Can't say Barbra will be too distraught though."

Mum always hated Tim, "Yeah." She murmured, then had a thought, "Dad, do you know anyone called Arthur Weasley?"

He raised his eyebrows and looked thoughtful, "I'd see him at the Ministry every so often but he works in Misuse of Muggle Artefacts, completely different department to myself. Why?"

"It's just that I'd heard that he'd been attacked and he's at St. Mungos."

He opened the boot of the car and threw my trunk in, "Really? Jesus, did u hear that Barbra?"

"Language Sam! What?" she was already in the passenger seat of the car.

He got into the drivers seat, "Arthur Weasley, the father of all those gingers at Cathy's school, your mate Sharon's cousin's husband. He's in hospital apparently."

"How terrible!" she didn't sound bothered at all, "Cathy, dear, I must show you the new dress robes your father bought us…."

She switched off at that point and stared at the scenery that surrounded them as they drove through London. Although her parents had been to Hogwarts, they were both Muggle born, so her Grandmother Jackson forced her mother to finishing school and her Grandfather Williams insisted that her dad learned how to drive. This all made it much easier for them to pass themselves off as a boring family of Muggles, well a boring rich family of Muggles. Samuel Williams, a respected doctor, lives an easy life in Harley Street, with his glamorous wife Barbra and their quiet daughter, Catherine who attends a boarding school in Scotland. Perfect.

After unpacking her things from her trunk, Cathy sat down on her bed and stared around her room. She had missed it a lot as she liked her privacy and hated sharing with those bitches at Hogwarts. It was a rather big room with old fashioned mahogany furniture and dark blue walls. However, you couldn't have been able to tell the colour as they were covered in posters of Muggle bands. There was a stack of tapes at the bottom of her bed and a walkman that she was unable to take to school with her.

"Timmy! Timmy! Timmy!" she thought, "Why? Why? Why?"

She put one of the tapes into the walkman and sang along with a voice that only a mother could love;

"_Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls,_

_Who do boys, but there's girls that do girls like they're boys._

_Always should be someone you really LOVE!"_

Cathy's dad burst into the room, pretending to be worried, "Where's the fire???" he joked.

"Aw, stop taking the mickey!" she giggled

"You know I love you really, despite the ruddy awful singing. The boss say's dinner's ready."

The "lovely dinner" was a bog standard Sunday roast, a bit inferior compared to the food at Hogwarts, but she ate it up and made little yummy sounds anyway.

She spent the next few days doing homework, listening to music and going for the odd walk. Her mum insisted on taking her on a shopping trip the day before Christmas Eve. Diagon Ally was completely packed.

"Why today of all days?" she asked her mum as they squeezed their way past Quality Quiddich Supplies.

"I thought it would be a lovely treat, last minute sales and all."

Cathy had never really liked shopping with her mum because they had completely different tastes.

"Oh look Cathy," she pointed at some pale pink dress robes, "Aren't they gorgeous?"

She rolled her eyes, "_More_ dress robes!"

"Why not? An early Christmas present."

Just then she spotted a black and red set of robes, lined with silver. "Aw! Mum, can I have those instead?" she pointed at them

Her mum frowned at them, "They're awfully dark. And you're so pale already, they'd make you look sickly."

"Please!"

Barbra walked away from the shop, "No. Maybe another time."

Cathy picked up an empty Butterbeer bottle and pretended to aim it at her mothers head. "If it's not her way it's not the right way!" she thought.

Christmas itself wasn't particularly spectacular. Cathy got a new scarf from her living grandparents, a strange humming contraption sent to her from Luna, money from her dad and a pair of red velvet, pointy toed boots from her mum.

"Oh they're lovely!" she said giving her a hug and she actually meant it for once.

A few days later, she returned to Diagon Ally alone. She went straight to the shop where she had seen the robes and to her delight, they were still there.

They cost nearly all of her present money, but she thought that they were worth every penny. She decided to take a proper look around as she hadn't been there for a while. Business seemed to be going well for most, but she noticed that one or two shops were having closing down sales.

"Why is that?" she asked the owner of a small bookshop.

He looked around, as if it was some sort of massive secret, "Things are changin' miss. And not for the better neither. Y'see only a few are feelin' it now, but by and by you'll be feelin' it too, and ye bests be packin' up when you do. Now buy sumthin' or get outta my shop!"

That left Cathy none the wiser, but it did give her an idea, for something to do over the summer.

_I hope that you liked it! Keep up the idea's/ reviews etc. I really appreciate it. _


	9. Glumbumbles

"Oh goodbye, darling! Be good!" Cathy's mother called after her as she lugged her trunk onto the train. She nodded and waved in return, her dad had been called away on "urgent Ministry business", but she couldn't see what was so urgent about escaped Glumbumbles. As her dad couldn't drive them to Kings Cross, they had to take a taxi which made them very late. Cathy made her way down to the very end of the train without seeing an empty compartment and swung her trunk around to make her way back up to try again.

"Alright Cathy?" came a cocky voice from behind her. She looked and found Fred Weaslys grinning head poking out at her from one of the end compartments.

"…..Um, yeah" she replied, not sure what to do.

"You're sitting with us then?"

She had forgotten all about the train arrangement before Christmas, she opened her mouth to reply, but Lee Jordan came barging up behind her, "Ah Cathy! Sitting with us are you? Excellent!" He pushed her through the door and put her trunk up onto the racks for her.

"Thanks" she muttered, going to sit next to Angela Johnson.

Fred stood, "Nah! Can't have you sitting there! Angela has eaten far too many sprouts over the holidays and has a bit of a wind problem!"

"I don't!" she spluttered in protest

"You can sit here between George and me." He steered her into the space between George and himself and sat down again.

"Now, isn't this cosy?" he said, pushing her closer to George with his hip.

George grunted in reply, he had gone very red in the face. The other three were grinning at them, looking expectant.

"So," Lee started, "how was everyone's Christmas?"

Angela started, "Good, yeah. I got new earrings from my gran. And mum and dad bought-"

"What about you Cathy?" Fred cut in, "What did you get?"

"Erm…" she racked her brains, forgetting everything that had happened over that past fortnight, "New boots and robes from this man with a beard who is leaving because of the escaped Glumbumbles." she blurted out, realising that nothing she had just said made any sense.

Everyone looked at her strangely, "What's a Glumbumble?" George asked.

"Oh, it's…..a, I'm not sure."

"…Right" said Lee.

Cathy felt responsible for the awkward silence that followed so she tried to start another conversation, "So, how's your dad?"

Fred answered although it was directed at George, "He's fine, why?"

"Well, Lee told me he had been attacked."

Fred looked as though he had just remembered, "Oh that! Nah, he's alright, had everyone worried. We thought mum was going to burst a blood vessel when she found out."

Cathy nodded, "Good. We'll not that your mum nearly burst a blood vessel, but that your dad is ok."

George smiled, "We know what you mean."

Cathy didn't say a word for the next half an hour as they all talked about Quiddich, a subject that she didn't really find that interesting, so she just stared out of the window before discovering that she could have a good look at George's reflection.

"Hmmmmm…..I like it when he smiles" she thought, not realising her mouth was open.

Someone tapped her chin, "Catching flies?" grinned George.

Everyone else was still talking about Qudditch, "I was just thinking." She replied.

"About what?"

She tried to be vague, "Oh you know, stuff."

"What sort of stuff?" he probed.

She racked her brains for something interesting to say, "Do you think that it's common for someone not to notice something, even if it's staring right at them?"

He looked thoughtful, "Dunno, do you mean like the time me and Fred turned our baby brother into a cushion and mum ran around looking for him all day not realising that he was on her bed the whole time?"

"Oh interesting! Sort of, yeah."

_This is just a taster of what's to come, because I'm still doing exams! I didn't want you all to feel neglected! Thanks for all of the review so far, keep them coming, they motivate me._


	10. Gwendolyn?

"How was your Christmas, apart from….the obvious?" Cathy smiled, clearly beginning to feel more comfortable. George was glad that she wasn't as awkward as she first had been when she was manhandled into their compartment by Lee and Fred. His brother had definitely earned himself toothpaste in his socks the next morning.

"Mum got me a scarf and a lot of sweets from everyone else." He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a half eaten bar of Honeydukes chocolate.

"Want some?" he asked, thrusting it in her face before remembering what happened the last time, "If you feel like biting my face off, give us a bit of a warning this time."

He grinned to show he was joking.

"No thanks" she smiled back before noticing a glint of worry in his eye, "I mean, I'd eat some but I stuffed myself stupid over the holidays and I think I better avoid sweets for a bit."

George pulled a face and ate it in one go, "Don't be daft. Why people get all anal about their health is beyond me. Stick – thin girls are a smidgen minging if you ask me." He froze when he realised what he had said

Cathy frowned, "I'm not doing it to impress you." _You so are doing it to impress him!_

"I didn't mean it like that! I just-"

"You're ok. I sort of get what you mean."

George looked relieved and took a bite before it was snatched off him by Fred.

"Come on, what's yours is mine and everyone else's for that matter." He said while sharing it with the others.

While everyone else was distracted, Cathy took the opportunity to speak to him properly about the incident of indecent exposure.

"Here," she muttered pulling at a loose thread on her jeans, "You know they way you helped when that thing happened?"

"Yeah" George replied, equally as quiet.

"I never got to say thanks properly. I mean, I know that you probably feel a bit weird around me after that, and that's totally fine. I'd probably feel strange around you if I saw you….Not that I want to see you! Well, I mean there's nothing wrong with you, but I know I'm not the prettiest-"

George had stopped listening and was concentrating on how her eyebrows twitch when she talked, and…was that a bit of grass in her fringe? Anyway, the eyebrow thing was quite cute to say the least.

"….so would it be alright if we just forgot about it and started again?"

George snapped out of his daydream, "Huh? Oh yeah, sounds great."

"Super." She grinned, exposing a chipped tooth. She held out her hand, "Hello, Sir, I'm Catherine Gwendolyn Williams. Very nice too meet you."

George smirked at her middle name, but decided to play along, "Good day madam! I am Sir George Weasly of The Burrow." He put on a snobby accent, "It's a pleasure."

He took Cathy's hand and kissed the back of it, making her blush furiously, before looking up to see if the others had noticed.

"Where did they all go?" she asked George.

He shrugged, "Dunno, they were talking about going to see Harry earlier, maybe they're with him."

She suddenly felt awkward again, but immediately tried to stamp that out on remembering their agreement.

"So what sort of middle name is Gwendolyn?" George broke the silence.

_Another really short chapter! But I promise the next one will be MASSIVE! Thanks to everyone that reviewed, especially VeryAmused for getting the reference. Your thoughts and ideas really inspire me! If any artists out there want to draw Cathy or any of the others they are very welcome. xx_


	11. Uglybearthing with a snout

"Remember, think of something that really makes you happy. A really prominent memory."

Harry had been saying things like that for the past ten minutes trying to get some form of a patronus to appear in the room. George was too busy laughing at some of the others faces to concentrate, especially Cathy's. She looked like she was trying to shit out a pine cone she was concentrating so hard.

He eventually settled down enough to try and think of a good memory. It wasn't as though he was stuck for choice. Birthdays and Christmas's with his family, playing Quidditch with his brothers, and going to Egypt all swam around his mind's eye before finally settling on getting his first broom.

"Expecto Patronum!" A warm feeling spread through his fingers and something sliver flew out of his wand. The silver mist ceased to reveal a sleek racoon, blinking up at him.

"Amazing!" he remarked, "Look Fred."

His brother turned around with a monkey clinging onto his jumper, "Haha! See this!"

Everyone else was beginning to get it as well, Ginny's horse galloped past and startling Fred's monkey so it disappeared.

"Cheers Ginny." He called over to his sister.

Meanwhile Cathy, was trying very hard to think of a happy thought that wasn't George putting his arm around her just before they got off the train to school. Seeing that nearly everyone had some form of a patronus, and determined not to be they only one, so she used that memory.

"Expecto Patronum!"

She was excited. What would it be? A graceful sawn like Cho's? A cunning fox like Seamus'? What appeared next she was not expecting. Waddling, yes _waddling_, out of the end of her wand was a small, bear-like creature with a squashed snout.

"What the bloody hell is that?" asked someone.

"You tell me!" said Cathy

"It's a Tasmanian devil." Murmured Neville Longbottom.

"A what?" said Luna airily, not taking her eyes off her hare.

"Tasmanian devil, they look harmless but they can be really vicious." As if on cue, Cathy's devil-thing began to charge at Hermione's otter, snapping it's little needle teeth.

But before it got a change to attack, a dull thudding could be heard on one of the walls in the room of requirement, making all patronesses vanish. A few seconds later a hole, just big enough to fit your fist into appeared.

"I'll make short work of this" came a high tinkle of a voice that could have only belonged to everyone's favourite person.

Suddenly, Cathy felt herself thrown back by a blast of stone and rubble. She opened her eyes to find everyone lying on the floor, disorientated or getting back on their feet, ready for a confrontation.

In the opening that had appeared with the blast stood, Umbridge, Filtch, the "Inquisitorial Squad" and Cho Chang.

"Traitor!" Cathy thought.

Next thing she knew, she was being dragged out of the Room of Requirement, by her hair by a great hulking monkey named Crabbe, or was it Goyle? She could never tell the difference, but either way it bloody well hurt.

"Ow!" she cried as her feet dragged along the floor. Looking up, she saw that everyone else was being herded out in a similar fashion.

Malfoy had grabbed George by the arm, and had his wand pointing at his throat. In your everyday situation, George would have chucked Malfoy out the nearest window by now, but all he could do was stare down at the little greasy git and wish him infertile.

"Get off!" he looked up at the familiar screech. Goyle, or was it Crabbe? Was dragging Cathy out by a fistful of her hair.

"Oi! What are you doing?" George hollered, trying to push past Malfoy, "Leave her alone or I'll…" What George said next would probably scar someone for live, not to mention make them very paranoid for the safety of their rear – end. The important thing is that Cathy was no longer pulled out of the room by her hair.

"Christ mate," muttered Fred, "for a moment there I thought you were her."

"Who?"

"Creepy Cathy. She really starting to rub off on you." Fred stopped and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and opened his mouth to say something else.

"Don't say it." George cut in as they were marched down the staircase to Umbridge's office, "Don't even think it."

The pain could only be described as unbearable at this point. The burning, white pain that was cutting into the back of her hands was getting that she could not take any more. She couldn't cry out as she had in previous detentions as Cathy knew it wouldn't make any difference, and her switching hands trick wasn't helping at all.

The room was silent, apart from the odd gasp of pain. Even now Dumbledore's Army was determined not to let her win. It wasn't as though the old headmaster was any help because he had pissed off to god knows where.

Cathy made the mistake of looking around the room, nothing fazed her that much until she saw Georges face. The pain and anger in it was too much to bear, causing Cathy to drop her head again. She felt her eyes welling up so she pulled the clip out of her hair and let it fall around her face so she could cry under there silently and undetected for the next hour.

"Here, Cathy!" George tapped her on the shoulder as they left the great hall after what could only be described as the most painful few hours of his life.

"What?", she turned to look at him, her voice unusually thick.

"Have you been crying?" he asked carefully.

"No!" she rubbed her tearstained cheeks, "Have _you_?"

"No!"

"Good then." She watched some of the others leave the hall, not wanting to make eye contact in fear of crying again, "What is it?"

"Erm…" George then realised he had nothing to actually say to her. So, not wanting to seem stupid, he said, "You should wear your hair down more often…yeah." Before walking off.

"Yes! Because that didn't sound stupid at all!" he thought to himself as he headed for the common room.

_Well, it's not MASSIVE, but its big,. Hope you enjoyed it as I put a lot of effort into this bit. Keep reviewing!_


	12. Heart to heart with my favouite teacher

"So, how many scars do you have? You know, being really accident prone and all that." George asked Cathy before skimming a stone across the surface of the lake.

"Who said I was accident prone?" she replied.

George wandered if she was being serious, before turning around to see her grinning at him. "I've got about 8 or 9 proper ones. And a few little ones just from stupid things."

She walked up beside him and pulled up her sleeve so show a dark brown mark on the back of her hand, "That when I burnt myself on a hot tri stand in potions. This one on my neck is from when I slipped and hit it on a table, my mum nearly had a heart attack." She then pulled up her shirt and showed a large one on her stomach, "That's when I climbed up onto a wall and there was a bit of broken glass on top."

He winced at the thought, "How are you still alive?"

Cathy laughed, not knowing how to answer that, "So what about you?"

"Hmm?" George skimmed another stone.

"How many do you have?"

"Just one big one really. On my shoulder from when my brother, Charlie, pushed me over and I fell into a ditch full of old rusty stuff. And I suppose we all have those ones on the backs of our hands after they heal up."

"If they ever heal up." Cathy's hands were smarting like hell ever since the detention, "Let us see it then."

George pulled down the neck of his t-shirt slightly so she could see a long scar then ran from his collar bone to almost the end of his shoulder. To his shock, she reached out and ran a long, cool finger over it. It felt strange in a good way and it sent a shiver down his spine.

"Nasty" she murmured before pulling her hand away.

Cathy winced in pain as she tried to cut up the dandelion root for a particular sleeping draught. It was the last practical lesson she had with Snape before her Potions N.E.W.T in two days. The scars on the backs of her hands were stinging terribly as the scars from Umbridge still hadn't cleared up. It was probably because she kept picking at them in her sleep, but it was still a pain in the arse!

"Miss Williams, have you not completed that yet? You're peers have nearly finished" Snape said coolly over her shoulder, making her jump.

"Oh! Sorry Professor" she said hastily, trying to chop faster and in consequence opening up part of the scab on her right hand.

Snape raised an eyebrow, "You will stay in this class until that draught is completed. Understand?"

"Yes, sir" she breathed, pissed off. She knew that she wasn't his favourite pupil, but he was never usually this unfeeling towards her.

Cathy had to stay behind half an hour before she was finished. After cleaning up, she picked up her bag and went to indicate to her professor that she was leaving, who was marking some papers at his desk.

"I'm finished, may I go?"

"No" Snape said, not looking up.

"What?" she wrinkled her nose, confused.

He stood up and began to stride towards his supply cupboard, "Sit down, I wish to speak to you for a minute"

Cathy sat down on one of the front desks, starting to feel a bit scared to what he was going to do or say. He returned a minute later with a small ramekin.

"Here," he set it down in front of her, "Put your hands in this, it's murtlap syrup."

She rested her hands in the mixture and it immediately began to feel better, "Thanks"

Snap stayed standing over her and she didn't know whether he meant to look intimidating or not, considering he wanted to have a heart to heart.

"You're not helping yourself you know" he stated after a few minutes silence.

"By doing what?"

"Clowning around with that Weasley boy" he said "clowning" as though I was sneaking out every night to romp around naked in the forest with George. In fact, the very thought made her go a bit pink.

When she didn't reply, he went on, "You're intelligent enough to go places, but you need to learn to focus and not get distracted buy a couple of arrogant pranksters who are going to end up selling their stupid merchandise off a street corner"

Cathy tried to see what he meant, "…Ok" she said uncertainly.

He turned back towards his desk, "That is all. You may go"

Cathy stood up quickly, knocking the dish onto the floor, "Oh! Sorry!"

She bent down to pick it up but Snape stopped her, "Leave it!" he barked from his desk.

Cathy practically ran from the classroom, a bit scared that the schools most hated teacher had actually shown an interest in her education. Not paying attention to where she was going, she ran straight into Fred and George.

"Sorry!" she squeaked and then noticed that they were wearing their normal clothing, carrying their brooms which Umbridge had confiscated and were lugging what looked like a large box of fireworks between themselves.

"Alright Cathy!" Fred said, while George just grinned.

"What are you doing?"

"Leaving!" Fred exclaimed.

"What?" she frowned

George spoke, "We've decided to give Umbridge what she deserves, and we'll be expelled for that anyway…"

"….so we were thinking, why stop now? So, we're leaving!" Fred finished.

"What? No, you can't!" she said, her voice going high.

"Er," Fred looked at her strangely, "I think you'll find we can."

Cathy could feel he backs of her eyes begin to sting.

"Here, Fred you go on" George said quickly, his eyes shifting, "I've left something up in our room"

Fred grumbled something and continued to drag the box towards the entrance hall.

"What's wrong?" George asked Cathy, puzzled.

"I…It's just, everything's been better since your…you've been my friend, and well, I don't want you to go!" tears starting to escape from her eyes as she went a bit red.

He set his broom down, feeling a bit bad, a pulled her into a hug "You'll be fine! Sure school's nearly finished"

She mumbled something incoherent into his jumper.

"Why don't you come down and see us off, eh?" he pulled her away and held onto her shoulders, her face all dribbily and pathetic, "It's going to be very entertaining!"

Her facial expression then changed from upset to angry, "No! It's fine, you go off and sell your stuff from a street corner, see if I care!"

She pulled away and stormed off in the other direction, "Cathy!" George shouted after her, exasperated and perplexed to what she was on about. When she didn't come back, he shrugged and wandered off in the direction of the great hall.

Cathy lay on her bed for the rest of the day. She could hear the rest of the school cheering for the frigging wonderful Weasley's and their wily ways, she decided she didn't care though and that Snape was right, she was better off without them.

_Sorry I haven't updated in a while! Been very busy with other stories. I've put up another Harry potter one if anyone's interested. Keep reviewing! xoxo_


	13. Running Chairs and Smashing Glass

"Go home mother!" Cathy sighed rubbing her temples, "Please?"

"Right!" her mother fumed back, stepping into the large fireplace that took up most of the wall space in the shop, "I will, but just you wait until your father hears about this!"

Cathy grunted in reply as her mother was engulfed in the green flames, her voice still echoing around the shop. _Cathy's Nick Knack's_ as she had named it was the shop she had bought off the old wizard she had spoken to the previous Christmas in Diagon Alley. She had spent the rest of her time at Hogwarts negotiating with him through owls and left the school with four good N.E.W.T's., "A waste of her brains and education" as her mother had just put it. She had her parents convinced for the past three months that she was taking a year to study the history of witch burnings in York but one of her mother's gossipy friends had spotted her and ratted her out. Cathy didn't care though, she was making a reasonable living, selling all matter of magical bits and bobs that she collected from markets and antique sellers, she wasn't as shy anymore either and enjoyed sweeping around the shop in multi-coloured robes telling people off for touching things or bargaining with other customers. The flat above the shop was rather nice two, with a little living area and kitchen with adjoining bathroom and bedroom. The only thing she didn't like was the view, as the positing of her shop gave her an excellent view of the building opposite. A building named _Wesleys' Wizard Wheezes_.

Cathy glared out the window at the joke shop. They thought that they were so bloody brilliant with their fast selling products and their U-No-Poo, and their ginger hair and a certain twins big grin and slight crinkle he got in his nose when he laughed. She hated the whole outfit and everything that went with it! Just the other week some pranksters had let off a whole bag of Whiz-Bang fireworks outside her shop, scaring away all her custom. She began to fume just thinking about it. Seeing that it was getting dark, she quickly shut up shop, wanting to avoid any attention for certain types that were becoming more common for stalking the streets at night.

George winced at Cathy's expression as she frowned out the window at their shop. She looked really angry and sort of resembled a garden gnome when she frowned.

"George! Go to bed!" his brother called from the bathroom of their comfortable flat, "We've got a lot of work to do tomorrow" He stuck his head around the door, toothbrush hanging from his mouth, "Look, if you fancy her that much, just go and ask her out for dinner and then give her a jolly good rogering!" he made a thrusting motion before disappearing into his bedroom, George's shoe narrowly missing his head.

George couldn't help but grin at Fred's vulgar remark, but his expression changed as he remembered that day in September when Cathy had just opened the shop and he thought that he would pop over for a visit.

"_Alright Cathy!" George grinned from the shop doorway, "How've you been? Got yourself a nice place here."_

_Cathy's head popped up from beneath the counter, hair all over the place and covered in dust, "What are __**you**__ doing here?" she said bluntly, her social skills as brilliant as ever._

_He pretended to ignore the cold greeting and looked at odds and ends she had for sale, "What's this?" he asked studying what appears to be a small chair covered in sheep's skin that had three hooves for legs and was running around in circles on a shelf._

"_Don't touch that!" Cathy stood, dusting herself off, "I'll ask you again, what are you doing here?"_

"_Just over to say hello, now that we're neighbours and all" George said lightly._

"_Oh, I see." She looked away, "Not over to apologise then?"_

"_Apologise? What for?"_

_She began to unpack some delicate glass instruments from a box on the counter, "Oh I think you know"_

"_I really don't" he was getting annoyed at her._

_Cathy's eyes went wide with rage and she began to scream, "Really? So it wouldn't be running off to follow your dream without a second thought for me or anyone else? Letting me spend that last month at that bloody school alone and miserable again? No letters, no contact? I thought I was your friend!" _

_It didn't take long for George to respond, sick of her moods, "I still am your friend! Don't be so selfish! I'm not going to drop everything and come running at your beck and call. I'm not some sort of bodyguard that you can expect to protect you from all the nasty little girlies that made fun of you!"_

"_Because that's clearly all I was. Some pathetic little schoolgirl who couldn't stick up for herself against the bullies, needing some big brave bloke like George Wesley to save her. I've done enough sticking up to last myself for a lifetime and I thought you were a mate, that's all, a mate, someone to be my friend"_

"_You call that sticking up for yourself, starting fights with random and throwing soup over people? Very clever. No wander we all think you're mental and a freak" George clamped a hand over his mouth, knowing he had gone too far. He heard glass breaking as one of the little instruments went slamming into the counter top. Bits went flying everywhere and blood began to seep from Cathy's hand._

"_Cathy, I'm so sorry…."_

"_Get out" she said quietly._

_He began to walk towards her, "Here, let me-"_

"_Get out!" she screamed at him, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks._

"_But-"_

"_OUT!" she went to throw another glass instrument but he dived out the door just in time, leaving her standing there, crying like a baby._

George was snapped back to life when Cathy's bedroom light went off and he turned to go to bed himself. Little did he know Cathy had been remembering the exact same thing and was staring into the darkness, trying not to cry.

_Once, again, sorry for the slow updates, but I think I'm getting back into things and chapters should be coming up more regularly. Every review helps!_


	14. Totally Plastered and I Don't Care

Cathy fell in through the shop door with a loud thud after spending ten minutes trying to open it. She lay there for a minute, before picking herself up and shuffling towards the staircase behind the counter to go upstairs. It was four o'clock in the morning and she was drunk, very drunk. Not your usual tipsy or a bit wobbly. But the sort of drunk that gives you a hangover for three days. That was how drunk she was.

She had started the Friday evening in the leaky cauldron, just for a quiet drink but the alcohol consumption became stronger and Butterbeer turned to Firewhiskey as the Weasley twins arrived with a couple of what Cathy would call "floozies" hanging around their necks. She tried to ignore the squealing and giggling coming from that corner of the room but it became so unbearable that she swallowed her fifth Firewhiskey in a few gulps and left through the door leading to muggle London. By this time it was after midnight and the streets were filled with women in short skirts being sick in a gutter while their mate held their kebab and men fighting over who called whom what.

"Beautiful" Cathy mumbled to herself woozily and headed to the nearest hive of activity. It was very dark inside playing loud , thumping muggle music while sweaty bodies pressed against one another. Struggling towards the bar, she ordered the strongest thing they had and then doubled it. After several of these and six more things called "shots of vodka", Cathy was asked by a young handsome man with dark hair is she wanted to dance. He pulled her onto the dance floor where she sort of swayed about whilst pressed against him for what seemed like hours and then he shouted something above the music that she couldn't hear but agreed with anyway. She was then pulled in a different direction towards the exit.

"Wherearewegoing?" she slurred.

"I told you. Back to mine" he replied, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Why?" she said stupidly.

"Take a wild guess" he grinned back, smacking her on the backside.

"Ohh!" she giggled, but at the same time imagining her mother's scowl appearing saying something about morals and how drink won't help anything "Shut up" she told her.

"Huh?"

She snapped back to life, "Nothing!"

Exactly three quarters of an hour later she was back on the streets of London and trying to find her way back to the Leakey Cauldron. The man's flat had smelt of smoke, but that didn't distract Cathy from biting his neck and kissing him before what Fred Weasley would describe as a "quick roger" on the kitchen counter. Cathy hurriedly left soon after, feeling a bit floozyish but also having felt thatshe had proved a point that she didn't like George Weasley in that way one bit. She was so proud of this she felt that she should let him know. So, once back in Diagon Alley, she lurched towards _Wesleys' Wizard Wheezes_ with a handful of pebbles in her left hand.

George woke suddenly to the sound of someone shouting his name. At first he thought he had slept in, but looking at his clock he saw it was only half three in the morning. He groaned, shattered after chatting up those girls in the Leaky Cauldron and rolled over to go back to sleep but then he heard it again and something thudding the window in the living room.

"George. George Weasly!" a familiar female voice shouted, followed by more thuds.

He crawled out of bed and pulled his dressing gown on before heading to the living room. He stood there for a minute, trying to work out where the noise was coming from. He then noticed small stones hitting the window and rushed over before whoever it was got impatient and decided to throw something bigger. Opening the window, he saw a very dishevelled Cathy standing there with her robes hanging off her and struggling to keep her balance.

"Do you mind?" he hissed, "Some people are trying to get a bit of kip"

"Ah! George Weasley! Just the man I was hoping to see!" she slurred up at him.

"You're drunk Cathy"

Cathy stuck a finger in the air, not bothering to keep her voice down "Correct, top of the class! I am very, very drunk and you know what?"

"What?" George whispered back.

"I like it and I don't care! You know what else you've done this evening for the first time?"

"I don't know" he replied humouring her, "Try to keep your voice down"

"Had sex" she whispered before giggling hysterically.

"What? I can't hear you, maybe you should come in"

"Sex! I said Georgie Boy! SEX!" she laughed some more.

"Who's had sex?" Fred's head appeared beside George.

"Cathy's had sex, apparently" he told his brother.

"I have too!"

"Who with then?"

She went quiet for a minute "I can't remember but it wasn't you George, it was someone else. So that proves that I don't like you, see. Hold on, why is there two of you?"

"It's Fred" George couldn't resist the urge to smile, evening if she was being an embarrassment.

"Oh" she frowned up at Fred, "It's _you_. I've never really liked you. You're too…." She made a funny hand gesture, "George is much nicer. I like him. Tell him that for me"

"I'm still here" he waved at her.

Fred turned to his brother before heading inside, "Tell her to go home, we've got work in the morning. I'm going back to bed"

"Go to bed Cathy" George said.

"What if I don't want to? You're not the boss of me."

"Fine then. Don't go to bed"

"I'm going to bed if I want to go to bed!" she began to stamp off in the direction of her shop before turning, "I'm not a slut you know"

"I know" George reassured her.

"Good, know that" she began to stagger off again, "That told him" George heard her say to herself as he shut the window again.

_Hope you enjoyed reading that chapter. It's loosely based on a night out I once had and thought it would be fun to put Cathy in that situation. Plenty of reviews please!_


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